Above the Fold

In doing research on website (I prefer the one word, instead of web site, or Web site, both of which I feel will soon look as archaic as tele-phone or tele-vision) content writing, I was pleased to learn the term "above the fold" has new life. Above the fold. It comes from the world of newspapers. The top news items are above the folded portion of the front page (don't think tabloid, though; well, think tabloid all you want, if that's what you need to stir up excitement, fear, and panic, not necessarily in that order). Above the fold. I used to work with a textbook editor who would ask about obituaries in The New York Times. When someone famous died, he'd call out from the row of cubicles in back of me, "Was it above the fold?" in referring to the front-page obituary. (Whom was he referring to in that era? Richard Burton? Maybe.) John D. noted how rare it was for the Times to put any obit above the fold. (I can't recall if Updike's was.) Regarding websites, the meaning is much the same, but digitalized as it were: information captured on one screen at the resolution your computer is set at, without any scrolling down on the part of the reader, user, visitor, audience, etc. Above the fold is an expression rich in meaning, conjuring metaphors financial, erotic, biological, psychological, historical, chronological, sporting, physical, metaphysical, informational, categorical, theological, semantic, and musical. Connotations, denotations, and illustrations also abound in the world of fashion, clothing, and tailoring; or baking; or sheep-herding.

Any others?